Attorney Consultation

Today we had our consultation meeting with the attorney we are interested in using. It was a phone consult, and that was great because Dan could still work today, but was able to take time out of his day for the phone call.

She gave us a lot of good information, and made us feel even better about the situation. The costs are going to be MUCH less than we ever expected if all goes as planned as well! We've still got to get some answers about her residency (right now she lives in GA), and how we can get her set up here in PA to make things easier on all involved.

She said we would need to figure out how to get the e-dad's (expectant dad) rights terminated since he will be deployed at that time. So we don't know if he will have to come home to do that, or if we can email him information which he can sign and mail back...etc. We do know that there will be documents drawn up and signed right before the birth that will give DH and I temporary custody so that we can make all decisions, be there, etc. when our baby is born. The father is able to terminate his rights immediately, and the mother has to wait 48-72 hours. After that they have 30 days in which to appeal their decision before we can officially adopt and have a new birth certificate issued, etc.

The attorney is going to do some research about the location thing (GA to PA) and then get back to us tomorrow morning. But it appears that we are well on our way to adopting our little baby.

We still don't know an exact due date, as the pregnancy has been confirmed by the physician but she hasn't had her first OB appointment yet. We're thinking it's going to be somewhere between the end of February and beginning of March.